Staff Product Designer, Network

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Staff Product Designer, Network

Company: Handshake

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations

Date Posted: 2026-07-30

Experience Level: 7+ Years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Design end-to-end user experiences for Handshake's Network team, focusing on acquisition, onboarding, activation, referrals, and overall network growth.

• Drive product strategy and execution by partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Marketing, and Brand teams to create impactful consumer-facing products.

• Leverage a deep understanding of user psychology, growth metrics, and experimentation to optimize user engagement, conversion, and retention within a large-scale network.

• Utilize generative AI tools to enhance the design process, accelerating ideation, prototyping, and iteration while maintaining a high standard of product thinking and craft.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned within Handshake's "Network" team, indicating a strong focus on user acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies that are critical for a platform like Handshake, which thrives on network effects. The emphasis on "consumer experiences" and "growth" suggests a deep integration with Go-To-Market (GTM) operations, particularly in areas like user onboarding, conversion funnel optimization, and driving viral growth through referrals and community building. The inclusion of generative AI tools highlights a forward-thinking approach to design processes, which is increasingly relevant in operations roles for efficiency gains.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete design lifecycle for network growth initiatives, from initial concept and user flow mapping to high-fidelity mockups and implementation collaboration.

• Develop intuitive and engaging user experiences across acquisition funnels, onboarding sequences, user activation pathways, and referral program mechanics.

• Translate complex user needs and behavioral insights into simple, elegant design solutions that drive measurable business outcomes such as increased user engagement and retention.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ideate, design, and refine growth experiments, including A/B tests on landing pages, onboarding flows, viral mechanics, and key conversion touchpoints.

• Drive innovation by exploring and integrating generative AI tools to streamline design workflows, enhance creative ideation, and accelerate prototyping cycles.

• Champion exceptional craft in visual and interaction design, applying a systems-thinking approach to ensure consistency and scalability across the platform.

• Partner with marketing and brand teams to ensure cohesive user journeys that align with overall company messaging and growth objectives.

• Continuously iterate on designs based on qualitative user feedback, quantitative data analysis, and the results of growth experiments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a hybrid role between pure Product Design and GTM Operations. The emphasis on "acquisition, onboarding, activation, referrals, and network growth" directly aligns with core GTM objectives. The need to "design and refine growth experiments" and "optimize conversion, engagement, and retention" requires a data-driven, experimental mindset common in operations roles. The mention of "viral mechanics" and "referral programs" further solidifies the GTM operations connection, as these are key levers for scalable growth.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years of professional product design experience, with a significant portion focused on building consumer-facing products at scale.

• Proven track record of designing and shipping high-impact consumer experiences for products with millions of active users, ideally within social, marketplace, network-driven, or consumer growth environments. Required Skills:

• Deep expertise in visual and interaction design principles, with a strong